When fires occur in bomb storage areas or in areas where aircraft, for example, are parked with bombs on board, attempts to extinguish the flames can place personnel in grave danger from exploding bombs. Munitions makers have long been acquainted with this problem and have devised tests known as "fast cook-off tests" and "slow cook-off tests" and other means for testing various materials and devices and the various explosive candidates in an effort to find combinations with an acceptable reaction to heating.
These prior efforts to counter the effects of heating have met with success only at the expense of warhead lethality, warhead volume or other impairment of efficiency in the all-up round.